The criminal case against the former Daggett County sheriff and four of his former employees will move to a neighboring county, it was decided Friday.
The cases will be moved to 3rd District Court in Summit County. Loni Deland, a defense attorney representing former Daggett County Deputy Joshua Cox, said the decision was made Friday at a hearing in Manila. Judges in the 8th District, which includes Daggett County, have recused themselves from the case, Deland said.
Court dates have not yet been scheduled in Summit County.
The five defendants are accused of mistreating jail inmates, permitting that mistreatment or impeding a state investigation.
Cox was charged with nine felonies and two misdemeanors, including seven felony counts of aggravated assault, each involving a stun gun. Cox, 27, also was charged with two counts of bringing a dangerous weapon — a stolen stun gun — to the jail; one count of theft of a stun gun and one count of reckless endangerment.
Former Sheriff Jerry Jorgensen, 64, who resigned after the Utah Department of Corrections removed state inmates from the jail, is charged with misdemeanor counts of obstruction of justice and official misconduct.
Lt. Ben Lail, the former jail commander, 31, was charged with a felony count of aggravated assault and is accused of pointing a stun gun at the feet of a woman working in the jail control room.
Logan Walker, 26, and Rodrigo Toledo, 41, were charged with misdemeanor criminal misconduct for failure to stop Cox from stunning the inmates.
The defendants have not yet entered pleas.
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Rick Egan | Tribune file photo Daggett County Jail near Manilla, in Daggett County, in 2007.